System and Method for Dynamically Power and Performance Optimized Server Interconnects

1. A method comprising: measuring a speed of each link in a first switch, wherein the first switch includes a plurality of links to a plurality of Ethernet ports; receiving a set of control messages from a second switch; and changing the speed of each link in the first switch based on statistics regarding the set of control messages, wherein the statistics are calculated at a statistics calculation module based on historical data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first switch has a set of rules to control the speeds of the plurality of links.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the rules comprise one of a configuration of a bandwidth, a configuration of the speed of a link, a control of the speed of a transmit channel and a receive channel of the link, a maximum power used by the switch, or a dynamic routing of traffic.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the set of control messages bypasses a transmit buffer of the second switch.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the statistics are calculated at a receive channel and at a transmit channel.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein each link further comprises a plurality of lanes over which data is communicated, and wherein the set of control messages is distributed over each lane.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: measuring a statistic regarding each link; and determining a rate adjustment for each link based on the measured statistic.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the statistic is an arbitration score indicative of how long a receive channel has been waiting to win arbitration of the first switch.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the statistic is a bandwidth utilization of each link.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein each link comprises a receive channel having one or more receive lanes and a transmit channel having one or more transmit lanes, wherein the method further comprises: determining a number of active receive lanes that receive data; determining a number of active transmit lanes that transmit data; determining a receive rate of the active receive lanes; and determining a transmit rate of the active transmit lanes.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the number of active receive lanes is different than the number of active transmit lanes.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the receive rate is different than the transmit rate.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: receiving a message on a receive channel; determining the received message is a control message; removing the control message from the receive channel; and interrupting a processor based on receiving the control message.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising: instructions to measure a speed of each link in a first switch, wherein the first switch includes a plurality of links to a plurality of Ethernet ports; instructions to receive a set of control messages from a second switch; and instructions to change the speed of each link in the first switch based on statistics regarding the set of control messages, wherein the statistics are calculated at a statistics calculation module based on historical data.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the first switch has a set of rules to control the speeds of the plurality of links.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the rules comprise one of a configuration of a bandwidth, a configuration of the speed of a link, a control of the speed of a transmit channel and a receive channel of the link, a maximum power used by the switch, or a dynamic routing of traffic.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the set of control messages bypasses a transmit buffer of the second switch.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein each link further comprises a plurality of lanes over which data is communicated, and wherein the set of control messages is received over a lane 0 .

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein each link comprises a receive channel having one or more receive lanes and a transmit channel having one or more transmit lanes, wherein the instructions further comprise: instructions to determine a number of active receive lanes that receive data; instructions to determine a number of active transmit lanes that transmit data; instructions to determine a receive rate of the active receive lanes; and instructions to determine a transmit rate of the active transmit lanes.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 19 , wherein the instructions further comprise: instructions to receive a message on a receive channel; instructions to determine the received message is a control message; instructions to remove the control message from the receive channel; and instructions to interrupt a processor based on receiving the control message.